Microsoft doubling XBLA gamerscore cap

XBLA games able to have 400 points and 30 achievements beginning next month; point total will be mandatory starting in June.

Gamers thirsting for a bigger gamerscore will be happy to know that beginning next month, all new Xbox Live Arcade games will support up to 400 points, an increase from the current cap at 200. The XBLA gamerscore cap doubles next month.

Additionally, with the update, all new XBLA titles will support up to 30 achievements. This is a spike from the previous cap of 20. This change will be optional for developers from April to May, but beginning in June, all new XBLA games will be required to sport 400 gamerscore points.

Make other incentives for getting higher and higher gamerscores! Offer some deal for so many MS points for every 100 or so gamerscore. I dont know why this isnt being done....it would really become popular and I think Microsoft could afford it lol.

400 points is great, now what I'm trying to figure out is why in the hell I got so many thumbs down? @Suikogaiden, yes, I have a lot of friends, believe it or not, and I just think it should be increased because people like playing with more an diffrent people. Is that so bad? lol

Venkman -- That's EXACTLY why they're brilliant, and why every single gaming platform moved to adopt them. They have no intrinsic or real value; they're the "DING" of the bell that says "Hey, I swung the hammer THAT hard". They're the gold star on the A+ homework. ...and they were an utter coup for MS. Would most people like to be occasionally told "Hey, you're doing reall well at this game" -- the answer is absolutely YES. Do they provide developers and publishers additional revenue at almost no additional development cost? YES. Addictive, (ironically like GladOS or EDI's internal positive feedback systems)? YES. Much like those two examples, the effects tend to diminish over time, but the creation of achievements was indeed brilliant. Increasing their relative value in XBLA games will absolutely have a direct impact on those titles' sales.

... yay? Gamerpoints are completely, if you'l forgive the pun, pointless. They don't do anything, they don't contribute in any way to a gaming experience. I have been on Xbox live for over 8 years, and not once have I ever been able to leverage my gamerscore for or with anything. Frankly, if that entire score system for the acheivments dissapeared overnight, I would not notice for months. #*@) gamerpoints and people who think they are cool because they have a lot of them. If you care about gamerpoints you need to get a life and stop playing so much xbox.

Oh my god, this is really important. I am going to be playing all of the arcade games now, so I can get those extra points. Wait a second, I don't care about gamerscore. Huh, I guess it doesn't really matter, but yeah, Witchsight, I hope your are not right. It is worrisome though.

I think achievements are a good way to give a game a longer life span. Some make you play in a different/somethimes fun way, some challenge you like getting the high score in a old school game before their were achievements. But some are just completely and utterly stupid, like they ran out of ideas for them.

Just don't double the price. I think they have to double the current cap of the Gamerscore, as I'm sure some gamers are probably at a pretty high level. My best friend is over 100,000! I'm yet to break into the 70,000, but I really don't chase those achievements too hard.

I have since moved on for Xbox and have a PS3 now... but this is great news to anyone achievements hunters out there! I always thought that 200 points was a bit short, especially for games that cost 1,200 points. I wonder if any game developers with games already available on XBLA are allowed to raise the cap on games already out??
Good news for achievement hunters either way

Of course people care about achievements/trophies. What other reason is there to play "Journey" a second time? It's a 3 hour game...and I only got 3 Trophies. Awesome game btw. I'm only gonna go through the game again to get the rest of the trophies. It adds more life in the game. Had it not had trophies, I would've felt the game was a ripoff.

as long as it won't affect the prices then so be it... then again i don't play through a game & force myself just to unlock every achievement on the game... but if i unlock an achievement or two, then it feels great

I don't see why Microsoft puts a cap on the gamerscore in the first place I mean it's just a silly score why not let em give how ever many points they want they don't really mean anything. LOL I remeber when I first got my Xbox 360 I got gamerscore and MS points mixed up and thought I could get points to buy DLC and XBLA games just by completeing certain objectives in my games. Silly me

This is cool but, I do not care that much because I only buy retail games and I think I have bought about maybe three game's on the marketplace one was the Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, Duke Nukem: 3D and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989 Arcade, just for Nostalgia with the last 2 games that I mentioned.

cool, I don't really care that much, but, deep down, it still makes me smile. It was a bit depressing when I spend hours to get an ultra difficult achievement, just to realize I was been reward with 5 points, just feel my effort should worth a little more than that.

this is great news as i'm an achievement whore, but how about they scrap micro$oft points and stop making me buy more than i need to buy what i want and then have a couple hundred left to do nothing with